Mind-controlled bionic hand using nerve transplants restores function

Humanity is edging ever closer to full robot mode: three Austrian men have just controlled their new bionic hands with the power of their minds, after muscles from other parts of the body were transplanted and they were retaught how to use them.

In the groundbreaking operation, nerves and muscles were taken
from the thigh region. And the best part of it all is that,
unlike in other similar procedures, surgeons have managed to
eliminate the possibility of the body rejecting the new
transplant.

The three lucky patients had undergone procedures in the period
between April 2011 and May 2014.

“The decision to let go of his own hand is definitely not an
easy one. Why? Because the patient still has a hand. But you must
not forget that these patients have lived without hand function
for about ten, 15 years and they know what it means to live
without hands,” Professor Oskar Aszman of the Medical
University of Vienna told journalists of the surgery and study, published in the journal The Lancet.

The three Austrian patients had what doctors call an “inner
amputation” – they had all suffered injuries in car
accidents or in nature that impacted their brachial plexus, the
network of nerves that connect the spine to the upper limps of
the body.

The damage is quite simple. The hand stops talking to the brain.
But it is also irreversible. Therefore, what makes the surgery
remarkable is that the hand is rewiring the very intricate
mechanism - the hand - and making it talk to the brain. The team
managed to not only transplant tissue and muscle from a different
part of the body, but also connect it to sensors that respond to
electrical impulses.

"For the first time since their accidents all three men were
able to accomplish various everyday tasks such as picking up a
ball, pouring water from a jug, using a key, cutting food with a
knife or using two hands to undo buttons," The Lancet told
journalists in a statement.

Aszmann, who invented the technique, explains that it is actually
less risky at times than a donor-transplanted hand, which
necessitates the use of strong drugs that could lead to health
risks. And when it comes to losing a single hand, Aszmann argues
strongly in favor of his technique, “because it doesn’t have
any side-effects and the quality of hand function being restored
with the prosthesis is almost as good of that of a hand
transplant,” as he told AFP.

He did admit that the research has some ways’ to go toward full
control and stability, but for something that’s “just plastic
and componentry”, it performs its functions with flying
colors.

"Existing surgical techniques for such injuries are crude and
ineffective and result in poor hand function," Aszmann went
on.

Milorad Marinkovic smiled at the camera as he waved his new hand
and the press took photos. He and the other patients had had to
undergo a nine-month preparation to learn to activate the new
muscles. That was before learning to control the new hand itself.

The surgery, which costs about 15,000 euros ($17,000) and is
about the same money as the prosthesis, is a healthy choice for
anyone aside from several categories of people, according to
Azsmann: "Some patients, in the end, will not be candidates
for bionic reconstruction, either because there are not
sufficient nerves available for reconstruction or they are
psychologically not fit for that, or the environment is just not
OK."

Since the advertised operations, the technique has already been
used at least once, with success.

Although the new sci-fi-like ability to control an entire limb
purely with thought is indeed unprecedented, the ability to feel
and sense muscle where there is none has been given to the world
earlier in February, when a Danish man who lost his hand a decade
ago had electrodes implanted into his upper arms, which gave him
feedback from pressure sensors and talked to the brain in a
natural way.

Excellence in intelligent prosthetics has been the aim for quite
some time now, and it appears the answers are here sooner than
expected. In December 2013, scientists were promising ‘smart’
prosthetics for Iraq and other war vets to be available in only
three to five years.

But we’re still doing pretty good when it comes to deadlines. The
last time anyone saw something like this was in Star Wars.